The country world is a mess; governments are failing in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, Syria, United States; there are wars and rumors of wars everywhere; Australia is burning; there are diseases and rumors of diseases everywhere; and the potus has not yet been banned from Twitter. Sometimes it seems like a world gone mad, and it can get a person down in the gray winter dumps…
Here are some things to be grateful for…
- If you are reading this, you have survived the grayest winter ever — 0 sunny days in January; 3.5 sunny days so far in February… (statistics are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).
- Though there wasn’t much sun, neither did you have to touch your snow blower or snow shovel (This is specific to Southwest PA…);
- You probably have not contracted the Corona Virus;
- There are 28 days left until spring — (Dandelions are sprouting in my yard. In February! And the daffodil buds are fat.)
- We have spring gardening, summer vacations, and fall harvests to look forward to in 2020;
- Writing the date 02/20/2020 is very symmetrical and pleasurable;
- According to Ballotpedia there are 1,047 candidates who have filed to run for president in 2020, including:
- 309 Democratic candidates
- 156 Republican candidates
- 64 Libertarian candidates
- 22 Green candidates
- 1,045 of them are probably better than Donny Johnny Rump or Grumpy Grampy Bernie;
- You have 256 days left to decide — Nov. 3, 2020…
- the courage of Col. Alexander Vindman, Ambassador Bill Taylor, Dr. Fiona Hill, Marie Yovanovitch, and Mitt Romney;
- This is a Leap Year and you have a free day on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. Celebrate it.
- the joy of getting a new book and having time to read it. (Currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke; just finished Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.)
- You are still here, most likely sitting in a warm place on this beautiful blue planet, in this candy bar galaxy, in the Lord’s world. We are here for a purpose. What will you do about it?